Something families do

Rachel and I just got back from a nice evening walk. Nice, but rather chilly. Sometimes I don't mind the snow. Today it was kind of fun. It wasn't too cold and the snow was still relatively fresh and pristine. I would guess there's about eight inches of snow--that completely covers our stroller wheels so I was very grateful to everyone who shoveled their walks. We had to go to a primary meeting and didn't have the car seat base so we walked. Next time I get a car seat I'm getting one that you can strap in without a base, just in case. We have a lot of "just in cases."

Anyway, it snowed a whole lot yesterday.

When we were coming home from my family's house on Sunday, Andrew said,

"We don't have to go anywhere tomorrow so," and this is where I heard wrong because I heard him say, "It can snow all at once."

I giggled and then said, "Yeah, we'll hear a whoom on the roof and we'll look outside and everything will be covered in a thick blanket of snow..."

"What are you talking about?" he asked me.

"You just said, 'It can snow all at once,'"

"No," he shook his head, "I said, 'It can snow all it wants.'"

That makes a lot more sense. And really, it did snow all it wanted. It snowed virtually the whole day. And we didn't go anywhere...until today and the snow was still there.

Usually we're pretty good at communicating but sometimes we just fail. Isn't that what Verne says on Over the Hedge? "Yeah, well, that's bad communication. Also something families do."

We definitely communicate poorly sometimes....often.

A few days ago I woke up to hear Rachel noising around in her crib. I hadn't slept very well and really didn't want to get out of bed to go get her so I prodded Andrew,

"Will you go check on her? See if she's awake, and if she is, bring her to me...pleeeease..."

"Yeahhhhmmmmppphhhhaahhh," he mumbled something in response and stumbled out of the room.

A few seconds later I hear Rachel greet him and then start screaming.

Andrew, meanwhile, stumbled back into our room.

"Yeah, she's fine. She's shtill shleeping," he said before he collapsed back into bed.

So I had to get up anyway to go get Rachel, who was rather offended that her father left her in her crib--she was obviously awake so I had to go get her myself anyway.

Sometimes she isn't so obviously awake though and pulls, what we like to call, "an Andrew." She did this last night. On our way to bed, Andrew and I went into her room to check on her--she had already been in bed for two hours and we hadn't heard a peep. We peered over her crib and since she was fast asleep, I reached down to cover her up a little better. No sooner had I done this than her eyes flew wide open! She stared right at us...

We tip-toed as fast and quiet as we could out of her bedroom and finished getting ready for bed as silent as church mice. When our teeth were brushed, our faces washed, and we were all but ready for bed, I sneaked back into Rachel's room as quietly as possible...she had kicked her covers right off. I reached my hand, stealth-like, over her crib bars. I grabbed the blanket and started pulling it up toward her chin. Again she stared at me, and this time she smiled--but she looked a little out of it.

I just smiled back and finished tucking her in. I didn't hear from her until 5 AM, so I'm quite certain that she wasn't awake those other times she looked at me. If she had been, I'm sure she would have kicked up a fuss. I guess Andrew's sleepiness can be a good trait...